Korrine Winnie

The morning of the second day in Alaska, we had time to explore Palmer doing whatever we wanted. After my group stopped at Subway, we all decided to go check out the supermarket. While I walked around, I ran into Doug at the Carr Supermarket. He told me he was from â€œthe wildernessâ€.

Doug is from Minnesota, and moved to Alaska 41 years ago in search of excitement and beautiful scenery. Doug told me that he had no running water, so he used a lot of cologne. After giving him my business card so he could check out the website, he told me he also had no electricity. He lives on the side of a mountain (how cool!) and only comes to town for food and water.

The Wilderness Man also told me about how Alaska has changed his ways of life. He mentioned that 45 years ago he never would have pictured himself now without running water and electricity, but he enjoys having the nature close around him. He was pretty confident on his way of life. I was very interested on how he could go on everyday without many people around him and no electricity. I wanted to ask him more about his life, but he seemed to not have much more to say. He continued to talk about being close with the animals at home.

Doug then made it obvious that everything that he had, had left him. His children left him and his wife had died. The squirrels, his only friends he had at his house, even stopped coming for food. Unfortunately, Doug is becoming older and ill. He told me that he was looking to move back to Minnesota to be with his family and around his friends. He was very nice and I enjoyed talking with him, he told me he hoped to see us all again.